013 983 498 7 



Hollinger 

pH 8.5 

MiU Run F05-2193 




THE SITE OF FORT SAINT GEORGE, 



Erected by CAPTAIN GEORGE POPHAM, in 1 607. 



By W. SCOTT HILL, M. D. : 



President of the Kennebec Natural History and Antiquarian 

Society. 



Read before the Society July 23, 1891. 



THE SITE OF FORT SAINT GEORGE, 



Erected by CAPTAIN GEORGE POPHAM, in 1 607. 



By W. SCOTT HILL, M. D., 



President of the Kennebec Natural History and Antiquarian 

Society. 



Read before the Society July 23, 1891 



REPRINTED FROM THE KENNEBEC JOURNAL. 



THE SITE OF FORT SAINT GEORGE, 

Erected by CAPTAIN GEORGE POPHAM in 1607. 



The paper published herewith embraces the results of an excursion to the site 
of Fort Saint George by members of the Kennebec Natural History and Antiquarian 
Society, on July 4, 1S91 ; on which occasion a copy of the "Draught of Saint George's 
Fort," by John Hunt, from that important historical work the "Genesis of the 
United States," by Alexander Brown, lately published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 
was carefully examined and studied on the spot with a view to its probable definition 
of the site of Saint George's Fort. Although written by the President of the Society, 
the position taken by the author has been unanimously concurred in by all those who 
were present at the time the exploration was made. 



The precise spot on which stood the fort 
built by Capt. George Popham and his 
colonists, the first Eaglish fort north of 
Jamestown, Va., has been the subject of 
much research by antiquaries and with ap- 
proximate accuracy had been located on 
the south shore of Atkins' Bay, a small 
body of water in the present town of Phipps- 
burg, on the west side of the Kennebec, 
or as it was called by the eatly navigators, 
Sagadahoc river. This bay is an inlet from 
the river about half a mile wide, and one 
and a half mile, in length. 

The discovery and publication in 1890 
of a draught of the fort purporting to 
have been drawn by one John Hunt in 
Oct. 1607 and sent to Philip III of Spain 
by his minister, Zaniga, in September, 
1608, awakened a fresh interest in the sub- 
ject and our society selected tbat locality 
for its first Field Day investigations. 

The principal sources of information in 
regard to this fort prior to the discovery of 
the Zuniga draught in the Spanish archives, 
were Strachey's His orie of Travaile into 
Virginia Britannia, Gorge's Brief Narra- 
tion, the valuable but less known Relation 
of a Voyage to tbe Sagadahock, usually 
referred to as Popham's Journal, discov- 
ered and published by Rev. B F. De Costa 
in 1830, The Brief Relation of the Presi- 
dent and Council of New England, Capt 
John Smith's Generall Historic of Ne* 
England and the writings of the French 
Jesuit missionary, Father Biard. 

The Popham Journal was evidently writ- 
ten by one of the colonists and Strachey 
seems to have copied largely from it in his 
work. Whilst many important matters are 
minutely described, there is an omission of 
others which would be of great value to 
the historical student. Beginning with 



that part of the narrative most interesting 
to us, we find the colonists, the morning of 
Aug. 13, 1607, south of Saguin 'Which 
island lieth right before the mouth of the 
river Sagadahock south from it near two 
leagues." The place which the colonists 
fixed upon as the mouth of the river was 
about five miles north of Seguin and can be 
no other than the river opposite Popham 
beach of today. Continuing his narrative 
the journal says — "Sunday being the 16th 
of August, Capt. Popham sent h s shallop 
unto us for to help us in, so we weighed 
our anchors, and being calm, we towed in 
our ship, and came into the river Sagada- 
hook and anchors d by the 'Gyfte's" side, 
about eleven of the clock the same day" 
August 17th they sailed up the river in the 
shallop and boat fourteen leagues (erron- 
eously given forty by Strachey) in search 
of the most convenient place for their plan- 
tation. At 9 in the evening they started on 
their return to the ships and arrived at two 
o'clock the next afternoon. Immediately 
after their return they "went ashore and 
made choice of a place for our plantation 
which is at the very mouth or entry of the 
river Sagadahock on the west side of the 
river, being almost an island of good 
bigness." Strachey adds to this, "being in 
a province called by the Indians, Sabino." 
This peninsular projects from the west bank 
of the Sagadahock and is about three miles 
from the island of Seguin. It seems to 
comprise the land nearly surrounded by the 
waters of the Kennebec, Atkins' Bay and . 
the estuary known as Morse's River. The 
northern end of the high, rocky hill run- 
ning north and south through tnis peninsu- 
lar is called Sabino Head. Whilst they 
were on the shore "there came in three 
canoes but would not come near us but 



rowed up the river and bo passed away." 
The 19th they again went ashore where they 
had made choice for their plantation. The 
"20th of August all our company landed 
and there began to fortify." Of the location 
of the fort there is no further mention only 
incidentally ; neither does it tell the kind of 
land it was on, whether wooded or clear, or 
what the surroundings were. It could not 
have been a great distance from the river. 
The Bite of the fort or a part of it at least 
seems to have been clear land as the Jour- 
nal says : "Capt. Popham set the first spit 
of ground unto it, and after him all the rest 
followed and labored hard in the trenches 
about it " The next it speaks of "some in 
the trench and some for faggotts." In no 
place is there any description of the material 
used, the size or shape of the fort. It is 
always spoken of as "the fort." There is 
today probably no vestige or trace of the 
work and we are forced to conclude it was 
built of perishable material which has long 
since disappeared. That the material was 
found near the site is highly pro- 
bable and the structure itself a weak 
affair. Willis Bays it waa "a mere stock- 
ade to repel tbe aggressions of the Indians, 
which was probably the case though Gorges 
feared the intrusions of the French as 
shown in his letter of Dec 1, 1607 " As to 
the houses he speaks of them as lodgings 
Another writer, without giving hia authority 
says they were log bu r s. 

Where the trenches were, how wide, how 
deep and on how many Bides we are not 
told. The changes of nearly three cen 
turies have obliterated them bo far as 
known. That the fort was on Atkns' Bay 
there seems to be no well founded doubt. 
Strachey says: 'Sept. 5. The savages 
came into the entrance of the river and so 
unto us," implying that they were not at the 
fort when they entered the river but had to 
go farther to reach it. That it was on high 
land seems plainly intimated when in tbe 
same connection he says "tbey came up 
into the fort." That the beach was sandy 
we also know. The same author under 
date of Oct. 3, says : "There came a canon 
unto Borne of our people as they were fish- 
ing on the sand." Biard gives an account of 
his visit to it in 1611 He says: "Straight- 
way all our people landed desirous to Bee the 
fort of the English, because we had learned 
from the piths that no person was there 
At first they began to praise and extol the 
enterprise of the English, and to enum*ra r e 
the advantages of the place;" soon, how 
ever, he testifies they saw the situation was 
badly chosen, in a military view, as another 
fort, properly placed, would have cut them 
off from both the river and the sea. To 



recapitulate briefly the points known before 
the discovery of the Zuniga plan. 

Tbe fort was at the entrance of tbe river 
about two leagues above Seguin, and on 
the west side ; it was at a distance from 
the river shore ; it was on a high 
bank or bluff; the shore was Bandy 
and in a location where another fort could 
be built, cutting them off from the sea and 
river, which can but mean, that the colo- 
nists could not go with their vessels from 
their fort to the river to sail, either up or 
down, showing that a fort could be built 
which would command their fort and the 
water way to the river. 

With this preliminary sketch, we pass to 
the consideration of Zuniga's draught. It 
is a draught of a completed fort, with reg- 
ularly laid walls apparently of stone ma- 
sonry, with three gates, one water gate on 
the north side, a land gate on the east 
and west sides. The four Bides of the en- 
closure are desiginated by the four cardi- 
nal points of the compass. There is a 
trench around a portion of the west and 
south sides. The inside shows nine 
pieces of mounted ordnance, sixteen 
houses and buildings besides a store- 
house and church. In the southeast 
angle of the fort a high bluff or cliff, on 
the north half of the east side and on the 
north Bide high cliffs with navigable water 
at tbe base as shown by a vessel under sail. 
Just west of the cliff in the southeast angle 
of the fort a stream is represented running 
through the fort and emptying into the 
water on the north side. The direction of 
the stream is from south to north. A gar- 
den plot to the west surrounded by what 
appears to be an iron fence, completes the 
draught The scale is fifty feet to an inch. 
Length north to south 350 feet: breadth 
east to west 250 feet. 

In the upper left hand corner is the fol- 
lowing: "The draught of St. Georges 
fort erected by Captayne George Pop- 
ham, Esquier, oi the entry of tbe famous 
River of Stgadehock in Virginia taken out 
t>y John Hunt the viii of October in the 
yeare of our Lorde 1607." The draught, as 
already stated, was sent to Philip III of 
Spain by his miaister Zuniga in his letter 
of Sept 10, 1608 Who the draughtsman, 
John Hunt, was, we have no knowledge, or 
where he obtained the draught. If in Eng- 
land it could not have come from Sagada- 
h ick at that date, as the only building 
spoken of as finished at that time was the 
storeh iuse. This building appears to have 
been finished Sept. 26, as no mention is 
made of work on it after that time and the 
Mary and John was discharging her cargo 
of provisions the same day. From the re- 



cently published letters of Sir Ferdinando 
Gorges, we know the dates of the vessels' 
return. In all other naratives published no 
mention is made of the Gyfte after the 
Mary and John anchored by her side in the 
Sagadahock. August 16 1607. The Mary 
and John Bailed for Eogland soon aft r the 
26th of Sept. 1607 and arrived in Plymouth 
harbor Dec. 1, of the same year. The Gyfte 
sailed Dec. 15. 1607 and arrived in 
Plymouth Feb. 7, 1607-8. With these facts 
before us we have to believe he was one of 
the colonists, which seems the only explana- 
tion at all plausible. 

The query naturally suggested is — is the 
draught genuine? Is it a correct delinea- 
tion of the fort as it stood Oct. 8, 1607? To 
this we have to answer in the negative. 
Comparing the descriptions given in the 
Popham Journal and by Strachey we find a 
very great discrepancy. The fort was not 
finished until long after that date. Tne 
houses were not built at that time. The 
number of pieces of artillery do not agree 
with the number given by Strachey ; he 
says there were twelve — the plan, nine. The 
number of houses and buildings given in 
Hunt's plan is 16 with a storehouse and 
church — Strachey says 50, which De Costa 
says is evidently a mistake for five, as after 
the vessels sailed for England there were 
only 45 persons left, and these men ; there 
were no women with the colonists. 

As for the material represented in the 
plan we know it could not have been 
brought over in the ships, whose combined 
capacity was only one hundred tons, nor is 
there any reason to suppose such was the 
case. Speaking of the expedition Sir Ferd. 
Gorges says : "Here upon Captaine Popham, 
Captaine Rawky Gilbert and others were 
Bent away with two Ships and an hundred 
Landmen, Ordnance and other provisions 
necesBarie for their sustentation and defence, 
untill other supply might bee sent " Strachey 
gives the number of days the men worked 
on the fort to Oct. 6th as twenty-five in- 
cluding two Sundays, and speaks of their 
finishing the fort after that date. It is not 
possible such an elaborate fort as is repre- 
sented in the draught was erected. Con- 
sidering the most important points, it ap- 
pears to have been drawn by one on the 
(pot who gave the correct topography, 
but the details of the fortification were 
drawn in that exaggerated style which 
characterized many other descriptions of 
the colonists doings. Believing the topog- 
raphy to be correct the society July 4, 1891, 
proceeded to Popham beach Landing at 
the steamboat wharf they at once com- 
menced the search for a spot having the 
prominent points given them in the draught, 



viz : a north shore with high banks and nav- 
igable water adjoining; on the east a high 
bank terminating in a high cliff inland, and 
level land to the south and west. In the 
draught the word "cliffe" seems to be 
applied alike to a high bank bordering on 
water and a high ridge of rock or earth inland. 

Going at once to the south shore of 
Atkins' Bay with a copy of Zuniga's draught, 
the party followed along the shore in a 
westerly direction until a steep ledge was 
reached. Here it corresponds, to the 
"cliffe" in the south-east angle of the fort, 
the road of today passing under the east side 
of the cliff and along the place corresponding 
to the posterna gate. The shore line indi- 
cated in the plan sweeps in an easterly 
direction from the north end of this ridge. 
From this ridge, to the north, is a level 
space with high banks on the east and 
north sides corresponding to the parts 
marked "cliffe" in the plan; on the south 
and west Bides a level tract several acres in 
extent, corresponding to that part through 
which the trench was dug on the south and 
west of the fort. The party having visited 
every part of this tract went a long distance 
along the east shore of the bay, but finding 
nothing indicated in the plan, retraced their 
steps towards the north shore of the bay. 
Crossing the field in an easterly direction, 
they came to what had apparently a long 
time ago been a stream running along near 
the west side of the steep ledge ; passing 
over this marshy place they clambered to 
the top of the cliff. From this point the 
whole ground is in view, though hav- 
ing several houses and other buildings 
on it, the outlines are plainly seen. 
It forms a bold promontory, with steep 
banks, standing out into the waters of At- 
kins' Bay. The sweep of shore line to the 
east, the Bandy shore, the high banks, the 
level land several acres in extent, all hav- 
ing the same contour as that given in the 
plan, and admirably situated for a planta- 
tion and fortification against foes whose 
weapons were arrows. The different parts 
of the promontory have the same points of 
compass as the corresponding parts in the 
plan. Looking across the bay to Cox's 
Head and Little Cox's Head we could un- 
derstand the force of Father Biard's criti- 
cism, that another fort could be built to 
cut them off from the river and the sea. 

No other place on Atkins' Bay corre- 
sponds in every particular to the Zuniga 
draught as does this one, and it was the 
unanimous opinion of the party who care- 
fully examined every point, that the exact 
location of Fort St. George had been iden- 
tified. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 983 498 7 f 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 983 498 7 



Hollinger 

pH 8.5 

Mill Run F03-2193 



